This invention relates to harness assembly apparatus and more particularly, to a corner post for holding objects to be bundled as the bundle makes a turn.
In the formation of a bundle from a plurality of flexible elongate objects such as wires, each wire is typically run individually on a panelboard between its desired termination points with the wire placed in a plurality of holding devices disposed along straight run portions of the desired bundle path. These holding devices generally tend to form the wires into a grouping of general circular cross section to permit convenient installation and tightening of cable ties. Examples of such holding devices and cable ties are disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,627,300 and 3,872,547, respectively. Heretofore, objects such as nails or dowels were used as supports for forming a turn in the bundle. However, as these supports generally extended vertically from the wiring board, care was required to keep the wires under tension to prevent their slipping over the top of the support. Additionally, such straight supports tended to disperse the wires from their circular grouping with the result that after a cable tie was applied near the support and after removal of the bundle from the panelboard, the wires would reassume a circular cross-sectional grouping and since a circle has a smaller periphery for a given cross section than any other configuration, the cable tie would become unacceptably loose.
To overcome these disadvantages of simple prior art supports, several types of corner posts have been proposed. Among these includes a support having a vertical section engaging the wires with a lip extending as a cantilever from the top of vertical section outside the turn to restrain wires from freeing themselves of the corner post. However, after the bundle was completed, it had to be loosened from the various holding devices to provide sufficient slack in the bundle to enable it to clear the lip and be removed from the wiring board.
Another prior art corner post includes a bundle holder and a separate mounting base including a latch mechanism for releasably retaining the holder. Although after completing the bundle the assembler was not required to provide slack in the bundle before removing it from the corner post, he or she was required to perform the additional step of manually actuating the latch to separate the holder from the base. The assembler was also required to keep track of the loose holder and replace it on the base before starting fabrication of a subsequent bundle.